"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
Edmund Burke. What happened on this Day in History?

Monday, August 20, 2012

This Day in History: Aug 20, 1911: First around-the-world telegram sent, 66 years before Voyager II launch

On this day in 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times
office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial
service. Exactly 66 years later, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) sends a different kind of message--a phonograph
record containing information about Earth for extraterrestrial
beings--shooting into space aboard the unmanned spacecraft Voyager II.

The Times decided to send its 1911 telegram in order to
determine how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world
by telegraph cable. The message, reading simply "This message sent
around the world," left the dispatch room on the 17th floor of the Times building in New York at 7 p.m. on August 20. After it traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different operators, through San Francisco,
the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon
and the Azores--among other locations--the reply was received by the
same operator 16.5 minutes later. It was the fastest time achieved by a
commercial cablegram since the opening of the Pacific cable in 1900 by
the Commercial Cable Company.

On August 20, 1977, a NASA rocket launched Voyager II, an unmanned 1,820-pound spacecraft, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
It was the first of two such crafts to be launched that year on a
"Grand Tour" of the outer planets, organized to coincide with a rare
alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Aboard Voyager II
was a 12-inch copper phonograph record called "Sounds of Earth."
Intended as a kind of introductory time capsule, the record included
greetings in 60 languages and scientific information about Earth and the
human race, along with classical, jazz and rock 'n' roll music, nature
sounds like thunder and surf, and recorded messages from President Jimmy Carter and other world leaders.

The brainchild of astronomer Carl Sagan, the record was sent with Voyager II and its twin craft, Voyager I--launched
just two weeks later--in the faint hope that it might one day be
discovered by extraterrestrial creatures. The record was sealed in an
aluminum jacket that would keep it intact for 1 billion years, along
with instructions on how to play the record, with a cartridge and needle
provided.

More importantly, the two Voyager crafts were designed to
explore the outer solar system and send information and photographs of
the distant planets to Earth. Over the next 12 years, the mission proved
a smashing success. After both crafts flew by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager I went flying off towards the solar system's edge while Voyager II visited Uranus, Neptune and finally Pluto in 1990 before sailing off to join its twin in the outer solar system.

Thanks to the Voyager program, NASA scientists gained a wealth of
information about the outer planets, including close-up photographs of
Saturn's seven rings; evidence of active geysers and volcanoes exploding
on some of the four planets' 22 moons; winds of more than 1,500 mph on
Neptune; and measurements of the magnetic fields on Uranus and Neptune.
The two crafts are expected to continue sending data until 2020, or
until their plutonium-based power sources run out. After that, they will
continue to sail on through the galaxy for millions of years to come,
barring some unexpected collision.